


Anonymous Hex

by aika_max



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Curses, Engagement, F/M, Memoirs, Post-War, Quidditch, Repressed Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-21
Updated: 2015-01-21
Packaged: 2018-03-08 14:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3212837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aika_max/pseuds/aika_max
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When the War is over, Voldemort leaves Harry with one last curse. He is doomed to be forgotten unless he can find one person who remembers him.  He doesn't expect that person to be the owner of the local wizard book store he randomly visits one day.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anonymous Hex

The chiming of the bell alerted Alicia that another person had entered her shop. She rather liked the relaxing sound of wind chimes, but this type of chime signaled more customers. Customers meant money, and that was fine by Alicia Spinnet. It was a small business, but she was doing quite well with it.

With her eyes, she followed the entrance of the tall, thin man who had just come into her establishment. He was dressed nonchalantly and didn't cause a fuss as he moved around the other customers. His wild black hair was hidden under a derby cap, and his eyes were vivid green. Alicia knew immediately that it was Harry Potter.

The fact that she knew it was Harry was a minor miracle. After he had defeated Voldemort, his life changed, but not in ways that he could have logically predicted. It was the minor details that had the odd surprises. He had lost his scar and that he no longer needed glasses. The biggest surprise was something quite different.

The wizard who had defeated the greatest evil in memory and recorded history had himself fallen into anonymity. He could be in a crowd of people and no one would know him. Five minutes after leaving someone's presence, he would not be remembered. People knew about the great hero Harry Potter, but they no longer realized who he was. He passed through life like a phantom.

Generally, the strange effect of Voldemort's last curse suited the reclusive Harry quite well. His nature had become more hermit-like anyway, and he felt sure he would have been that way even without the strange curse.

The only time that side-effect didn't work was when he was around people who had known him for a long time before the final battle and the casting of that final curse. With the high death toll from the War, there weren't many left who could make that claim. It had taken the Weasley family and most of the Hogwarts students and teachers. Alicia Spinnet was still alive, though, and she _knew_ him.

Intent on making a connection with him, Alicia made her way over to where he was standing looking at some books on the sport of Quidditch.

"May I help you, sir?" she asked in formal politeness while waiting for a hint of recognition from Harry.

Harry didn't recognize _her_ , though. In fact, he wasn't even looking at her to try and take notice. He was mannerly enough in asking about the books, but he did not act toward Alicia that he knew her at all.

"Harry, look at me!" she commanded after a few moments because she was tired of waiting for Harry to realize who she was.

He flinched at being addressed by name and turned cautiously to look at the chestnut-haired shopkeeper beside him. She had warm brown eyes and rosy mouth, and her thick hair framed her face in a way that was truly flattering. He had to admit she was attractive, but he'd been too busy with his questions to notice immediately.

He continued to look at her until the light of revelation fell on him. "Alicia..."

"That's right, wonder boy," she said with a dramatic sigh and a roll of her eyes. "It took you long enough to notice!"

He blushed. "I'm not used to seeing people I know any more. So many died in the War..."

"I know," she said soberly, "but not all of us."

He shuffled uncomfortably, and she filled the silence. "So do you still want that?"

"Yes, please," Harry said, looking at her quickly from the corner of his eyes.

Alicia had one of her employees get the books down off the high shelf, and Harry went to pay for them. He passed the money over and looked at her intently for a while before gathering up his package and leaving without a word of goodbye.

The bell tinkled behind him as the door to her shop closed, and anonymous Harry disappeared into the bustle of Wizarding London.

"Who was that?" one of the employees nudged about the handsome black haired man who had just left.

"Harry Potter," Alicia said softly.

"Really?" a different employee asked with stars in her eyes. "No one sees him around anymore."

"Of course not," she murmured as she shooed her people back to work. Meanwhile, Alicia hoped she'd see Harry again. This visit had been a pleasant and unexpected surprise.

* * *

Harry did come back to Alicia's shop quite often. Sometimes she was there, sometimes she wasn't. When she was, though, he always went to her like a compass seeking north. He hadn't realized until meeting her again that he had missed other people so desperately. When the War came, he shoved everyone away for their protection. He thought it was better that way, but instead it still ended in tragedy with him lamenting the times they could have had together.

"Harry," Alicia finally said after he purchased a book that she knew with reasonable certainty wasn't for him. "It's almost my lunch break. Would you like to share a cuppa?"

"Yes!" he said eagerly, his eyes glowing. Though a grown man now starting to enter his late twenties, he looked so boyish that Alicia couldn't help but remember him as the new kid on the Gryffindor House Quidditch team.

Alicia let out a laugh then that sounded like music in his ears. She offered her arm and walked out with him to have lunch.

"Who was that?" Estelle, one of the clerks asked as her boss left.

* * *

As they sat down to eat, Alicia made small talk. She had always been comfortable with him for team practices, and they were friendly while they were in school together. Plus, she was just that kind of woman who didn't feel herself a stranger anywhere. People just liked Alicia.

After some talking and laughing, Potter looked like he wanted to say something, but he wouldn't start. She took the initiative.

"What is it, Harry?" she coaxed.

"You're not who I expected you to be," Harry said shyly.

"That's because you never expected me to be anything," Alicia said with a twinkle in her eyes. "You were too busy looking at other girls like Cho Chang to even notice one of your mates on your own the Quidditch team—not even someone as gorgeous as me!"

He laughed at her cheek because it was part of her charm. Her answering smile reinforced the gorgeous issue.

"And then," she said, suddenly somber, "we had a war, and you were still too busy to think on frivolous things."

"Yes, we had a war," he said as he traced the pattern of the tablecloth with his fingers. His serious tone answered hers in silence for several moments.

"You remember me, Alicia. There are so few that do," he said with a longing in his voice. "That's the real reason I keep coming back."

"I thought so," she said with an indulgent smile. "After your last purchase of a book on health issues for the aging witch, I had a clue. Sure, you could have been donating them, but that's not it. Is it?"

"Yes. No. Uh… I _am_ giving away the books. What do I need to know about menopause?" he said, allowing himself to laugh. "But I like coming into your shop and knowing that there's someone there who'll know who I am, and not just know _about_ the famous Harry Potter."

"You always wanted that, Harry, even before the War started," she said with a laugh.

He nodded as he thought about it. "You're right."

Alicia reached her hand to cover his. "I'm your friend, Harry. If you want to spend time with me, you don't have to buy every book in my store to do it."

"No?" he asked smile.

"No, you don't, though the profits have been nice," she teased and winked.

He continued eating his lunch with the happiness wrapping itself around his heart. This was the best he had felt in much too long.

* * *

After lunch, they walked back to Alicia's shop and Harry bid her farewell. When she entered, one of the other employees nosily asked "Who was that man that had lunch with you?"

"Harry Potter," she replied not sounding impressed.

"Wow! We haven't seen him since before the War," he said with the sound of awe in his voice.

"Actually," she said softly, "you see him almost every day. You just don't remember it."

She went back into her office to work on the books and left the employees to wonder at that.

Because of the nature of Harry's curse, speculation didn't stop. Her mother visited the shop after the two had been having regular lunch dates for two weeks.

"So I've heard your dating an attractive young man," she said hoping to grease the wheel of conversation.

Alicia took a drink from the cup on her desk before answering her mother. "Has anyone mentioned to you who it is?"

"No! They can't tell me. Are you sneaking around in secret? What's going on in your life, Alicia?"

She could have laughed at her mother because she sounded to the letter exactly like a wounded martyr mother.

"It's Harry Potter, mum, and I remember him. You won't. We'll probably have this conversation again in a few days when you think I've been hiding things from you again."

Alicia sighed and wondered if her friendship if the wizard was worth dealing with the forgetfulness of others. As soon as she thought it, she banished the thought. It was completely worth it, but she didn't want to try to quantify exactly why just yet. She wasn't ready to go there.

* * *

"Why do you own a bookstore?" Harry asked her after one lunch. "I would have expected it from Hermione, but not from you."

She pursed her lips. "Are you saying a sporty girl isn't supposed to have brains? You should know me better than that by now."

"Alicia," he said with a warning tone, "you know what I mean!"

She nodded and took a bite of the candy floss they'd picked up from a street vendor.

"I could have been a professional Quidditch player. I was that good, you know. After the War, though, the teams were in upheaval just like the rest of the world. So I opened my own shop, putting my fate in my own hands, as it were. At first it was sports supplies, and then I got some books. Things evolved because I was filling a need."

"That's very pragmatic," Harry complimented.

She shrugged. "Some people defeat the Dark Lord. Some people start their own businesses."

"And it's all as scary as hell!" he replied with a commiserating grin.

Before they returned to the shop, Alicia stopped to inform him, "My employees and my mother think we're dating. Well, they think I'm dating _someone_ and keeping it secret from them since they can't remember _you_."

He blushed, and Alicia thought it was endearing. It was also, perhaps, a sign of his limited romantic experience since he'd been too busy being the hero, and then he virtually became a non-entity.

"We're not dating," he said quickly. "I haven't even kissed you yet."

"That's right. You haven't," she agreed, walking into her shop with the bell tinkling above her head.

Harry stood outside on the step and watched where Alicia's back had been. Then he screwed up his courage and charged into the shop.

"Alicia Spinnet!" he called. When he found her, he pushed her against a stack of self help books. "I'm going to give you a kiss you _will_ remember."

"Potter, I'd like to see you try," she answered with a smirk while the others in her shop looked on in wonder.

Showing that he wasn't quite as helpless as he was when he was a teenager, Harry put one hand into the thick dark hair at her neck and the other he put at her waist to bring her body closer to his. He traced the contours of her mouth with his tongue and then gently nipped at her lips until her mouth opened slightly. He then kissed her deeply, and she responded with obvious enjoyment.

When they broke off the kiss, she replied cheekily, "Not bad, Potter. Not bad."

He winked at her and entwined his fingers in hers for a moment before parting. "See you soon, Alicia," he said before walking out the door with a huge smile on his face.

* * *

Their dating came easily for them from that point. It was only when adding other people into the mix that it became difficult. Alicia knew it was difficult under normal circumstances, but it was worse with the fact that Harry would be effectually Obliviated from everyone's memory shortly after leaving them.

When she was with Harry and they were with others, everything seemed to be fine somehow. They knew who Harry was for that time as long as they were reminded, but it always changed when he left because of his curse. It niggled her brain during the moments when they weren't together like a puzzle she had to solve.

One night after a particularly lovely date shared with two other couples, Alicia was again in a pondering mood as they left them because she knew they wouldn't remember it. An idea was forming in her head that was just out of reach like a nasty mosquito buzzing in her ear. She sighed in frustration because of it.

"What is it?" Harry asked her in concern.

Alicia tried to deny anything was bothering her, and she reached for his hand while they walked through the park. After a moment, she turned his hand over and looked at the scar that still remained because of another person's cruelty and ignorance.

"Have you been telling me any lies, Harry?" she jested.

"No!" he said in surprise, stopping quickly.

Things had been going so well with Alicia, and she was one of the few people with whom he actually felt comfortable. He couldn't fathom why she'd be asking him that question, and he hadn't heard the note of teasing in her voice. "Why would you think I've been lying to you?"

"I don't. That was just a very bad joke," she said as she meaningfully stroked the top of his hand.

Harry looked down and was reminded of the lasting effect Dolores Umbridge had in his life.

"Not all your scars are faded," she said softly, putting her arms around him. "Not all the ones on the outside and definitely not the ones on the inside. In fact, there's infinite irony in you, Harry. Your own eyes are opened now that you don't need glasses, and yet no one sees you."

He coughed and said, "They never did."

"I'm going to change that. I don't know how, but I will," she said as she leaned into him for one of his sweetest kisses.

Before the parted each other's company for the evening, Harry suggested they go play Quidditch once she closed her shop on Saturday afternoon. She agreed on the date and promised to give him a good match.

* * *

When Saturday afternoon came, Alicia was ready for a game, and she was serious. Loving Harry had no impact on her competitive streak, and he liked her much better that way. He didn't know how to handle an insipid woman who couldn't play.

Enough people had gathered on the pitch that a rather lengthy game was played, but Harry and his impromptu team still ended up winning.

"Typical," Alicia commented later with a smile as she went back to Harry's house with him. "You've always been the wonder boy, Harry."

"I can fly," he said humbly as they walked through the door. "It's the one thing that has always come easily to me. When Malfoy took Neville's remembrall, I just had to go after it..."

Alicia had been looking at herself in his mirror and patting her hair, but as soon as he mentioned his first flying experience, something finally fell into place. Her hands went to her mouth in the quintessential expression of surprise.

"That's it," she said with such a deep conviction that Harry stopped his reminiscence and looked dumbly at her.

"I remember you, Harry," she said as she started to pace in front of his sofa. "Others do, too, even if they are few and far between. If we find them, we have the matrix for a spell. I'm certain of it!"

"Experimental magic?" he asked in disbelief.

"No," she said, stopping in her tracks. "It's not experimental at all. You just mentioned a remembrall yourself!"

"I don't need a remembrall, Alicia. I know who I am! It's other people that don't," he said in annoyance.

"Stop being a prat, Potter!" she said as she sat down on his coffee table. "Now sit and listen. If we gather enough people together, we can copy their memories just as they are isolated for a pensieve. Then the same way a remembrall is charmed to contain memories, we can combine them and attach them to you."

Harry, who had been standing, finally did sit down when he realized the impact of her words. He looked away, his vivid green eyes, shadowed while he thought. "That might actually work," he whispered.

Alicia nodded. "It just might, and if that's what you want, I'll be with you the whole way."

She stood up and put her hand lovingly on his shoulder. He looked at her before pulling her down to sit in his lap. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him with a fervor heightened by the thrill of discovery.

"When we're done with this, I'm going to meet your mother, and she's going to remember me," he announced, his voice deepening. "We can't have her forgetting her own son-in-law."

Alicia's face froze in an expression of utter surprise. Then she laughed to let off the tension. "No, there's no pressure to do this right, is there? Let me see… I restore everyone's memories and get a husband in the process?"

"If you want me," he said as an offering.

"I do," she answered softly before smiling at the sound of those words.

* * *

Because of Alicia's contacts in the business world, she went to work right away to contact people who might have personally known Harry Potter at some time during his life. She also sent out requests out to various Wizard media. Her shop became Harry gathering central as people from across England and the rest of Europe started congregating there making a general muck of things.

"So I can meet 'Arry Potter himself?" one toothless man asked her eagerly. This wasn't something that Alicia had been planning, but she had to admit it sounded like a good idea.

"Yes, of course, but you've got to buy something first," she said shrewdly.

"Why's that?" he asked, sounding put off for a moment.

"Because this is a book shop, and if you want to have a place to be able to meet your hero, I have to be able to pay for the appearance fees," she said, thinking fast to create a plausible excuse.

"I guess I could do that," he said unenthusiastically.

She smiled and tilted her head. "Nice of you to agree with me."

* * *

It was Harry who needed the convincing about his work in the shop and particularly her efforts at advertising for people from his past. He found the idea cheap and degrading. She cajoled him that if it didn't work, people would soon forget about those efforts, too.

Alicia also said, "Of course, it's cheap and degrading! If you had become a professional Quidditch player, you'd be doing the same thing any time your team's fans went to visit you at games. There are just some things that are part of the job, and your job is to be The Man Who Was The Boy Who Lived."

"You're never going to say that again, are you?" he asked hopefully.

"I might," she said obstinately before relenting.

Harry might have threatened rethinking his proposal, but Alicia twisted him around her finger to agree to come to her shop during certain times as a special guest.

"What you need to do is write a book. Quickly. We can advertise the exclusive sales rights to the book, and then all people who would have been curious about you will come to us. It makes it a whole lot easier than me traipsing across the globe to find any hermits in hiding who knew you once upon a time," she said.

"Does that mean you wouldn't go looking for someone if I needed that last piece of memory?" he asked pointedly.

She opened her mouth to object and then looked at him earnestly. "Wonder boy, you know I love you more than the world. Do you think I wouldn't do that for you if that's what you _really_ needed? Of course, I would! But _why_ do we have to do it the hard way?"

"You have a point," he conceded.

"I told you I was practical," she said.

* * *

So Harry quickly got to work penning a memoir about his life as a child raised by Muggles without the knowledge of his magical heritage. His writing of those passages was slow because he had such an unhappy childhood. He didn't realize how bad it had been until he had gone to Hogwarts and found out what it was like to be truly happy.

Harry also wrote about what it was like to fly, and Alicia checked over his shoulder as he penned those passages. She drank her tea and laughed with him about antics from the team and crazy episodes from Oliver Wood.

Being smart and subtle, she started putting up signs when Harry was working on his book. First he had sat at a table in the office. Then she gradually moved him out of there and into the parts where the public could see him. It was so gradual that one day he looked up, surprised to see a beverage and sandwich shop attached to the book store.

"When did you do that?" he asked as he wiped his brow. Some of the dark ink smudged on his forehead.

"A few weeks ago," she said. "We have a lot of writers and other people hanging out here now. I wonder why."

The last was said with mischief that he didn't pick up. He was too busy with the writing. It was both terrible and wonderful, but he feared he had forgotten what the sky and sunlight looked like. He still enjoyed those very much, so he showed himself out of Alicia's shop. The shop bell tinkled above his head just as it did every time he went to and fro.

* * *

About two weeks later when Harry walked into Alicia's shop, she wasn't there. He was confused as to her whereabouts because she had not told him that she had any unusual appointments.

"May I help you, sir?" one of the shop assistants asked. "I could leave a message to tell her you came by."

"Sure, you do that, but make sure you write it down," he said. It was about the only way his message would be given to her. "Tell her Harry Potter came by."

The assistant stilled in the writing, and looked up directly at him. "You?"

"Yes. Make sure she gets the message," he said before leaving to fade into obscurity again.

* * *

He didn't see Alicia at her shop for the next three days, and she wasn't taking any of his owls or communication. It was late one Saturday that she stumbled into her flat. Harry, who had been watching for her return, pounced on her.

"Where have you been?"

"I've been cheating on you and got myself a new fiancé I won't have to explain every time he leaves the room," she said as she stared at him tiredly.

Harry huffed at her and declared, "That might have been funny the first five times. It's not funny any more, and if you keep saying it, I might start believing you."

"I'm sorry," she said before inviting him inside.

Once they were inside, she put her things on her small table, and rubbed the furrow between her eyes. "People! Sometimes they aren't very helpful at all."

"What have you been doing?" he asked. He got up to move around her small kitchen and prepare her a cup of tea just the way she liked it.

"I was getting you your engagement present," she said. Then she reached into her bag, and showed him the small clear ball that contained an algae green fog.

"What is this?" he said as he sat down slowly and reverently.

"It's a memory," she said proudly, "but not just any memory. This one came from Danielle Delacour."

"You went to France?" Harry asked in surprise.

"Yes," she nodded and put her head on the table.

"But you said you weren't going to go hunting for people if you didn't have to…" he said as he looked at the ball with even more reverence.

"Well…" she said, as she took the ball and placed it in a special wooden box for safe keeping, "it was important to find her. She had a good early memory of you that was very strong. It was worth it, but it was terrible to find her! She'd been hiding out in the Pyrenees. It turned out she grew up to have a crazy boyfriend. That's what she gets for being part veela."

"But you got the memory?' he asked hopefully.

"Yes," she said. "And despite my words to the contrary on travel, I have one more big trip to take."

"Where will you go next?" he asked as he gestured for her to sit down again. He took her tired feet in his hands and started rubbing them.

"I give you four days to stop that," she sighed as she melted into the chair. Then after a while, she answered, "I'm going to meet with Viktor Krum. He's in Pakistan. I don't know why, but if that's where he is, that's where I'm going."

"You shouldn't go alone," Harry said, while still massaging her toes. "You're going to all this trouble for me, and I should help. It's only right. You never know if the memory would be stronger if I'm there."

"It might be, but I'm not going to worry about it just now. I feel like I've been run over by a herd of hippogriffs. I need to go to bed, Harry. So either you're joining me to _sleep_ , or you're going home."

"I think I'll let myself out," he said as he watched her slump to her bedroom. He put away the unused tea things and did a spot of cleaning before excusing himself to his own flat.

* * *

Before Alicia and Harry were going to make their trip to Pakistan to meet the elusive Mr. Krum, she had a different target in mind. She was going to snare Dolores Umbridge. Despite the last that they'd seen of her after Alicia's seventh year at Hogwarts, the woman had managed to come back into society. It was a weird and strange thing, but Spinnet took that as her opportunity to kill the other woman with absolute kindness.

It started with an invitation to a free book and cup of tea at her shop. She even put in some advertisements for books with pink covers or that had anything to do with cats. Something was going to pique her interest. If not that, then the flattery of bald-faced lies were going to work instead.

When the toad-faced woman appeared in Alicia's shop, she came out to serve her personally. That included lavishing her with praise for the leadership she had done at Hogwarts and the positive impact she had made on Alicia's life. She sweetened her lies with the gifts she had promised the woman.

"Ms. Umbridge, I really do need to ask your expertise in a certain matter," she began. "I have a project about Harry Potter, and I know that you know the _real_ Harry. So many others were taken in by his boyish charm or his reputation, but you saw the truth behind it. So could you help tell me all that you know about him?"

Alicia put the recording device on the table in hopes that it wouldn't draw too much attention. As the other woman spoke, the ball began to fill with colored smoke, but this was of a dark pink variety not unlike the shade that Dolores herself would prefer to wear.

When she was done speaking, Alicia felt like she needed to bathe. The woman was disgusting, and her ideas might not be the best ones to add to the spell to bring Harry back to remembrance. She directed the horrid Dolores to a stack of books she might want to purchase, and then Spinnet excused herself to work in her office reconciling some of the financial reports.

* * *

"What's this I hear about you being engaged?" an enraged Mrs. Sarabella Spinnet demanded when she stormed into Alicia's office a few days later.

The younger woman threw her hands in the air and asked, "Am I going to have to start using security wizards? Mother, you just can't enter any time you like. How do you know I wasn't in a business meeting?"

"Well, you weren't," she said as if that fact justified her rudeness.

"Mother, I'm going to write you a note right now on parchment. I want you to sign it, and I'm going to get you and a few of my employees to witness it. You will keep it in your purse so that next time you feel like having this conversation with me, you can't accuse me of keeping secrets," Alicia said, clearly fed up with her mother's questions.

"You don't have to be so dramatic! If you don't want to tell me, then just say so."

"I just told you that I have told you. I'm telling you now. I will tell you in the future. I'm _telling_ you, Mother!" she said as her voice rose with impatience.

"It's almost like being Harry's fiancée isn't worth it," she said in exasperation to herself. It was difficult, sure, but it was not something she was going to give up. He had a kind heart and was naturally humble. That sweetness and reality made him endearing to her.

"His name is Harry?" her mother asked. "Are you going to tell me about him in a reasonable tone?"

"We were school mates. I've known him for a long time, but this is a new relationship. I love him. I really do. He wants to meet you, you know. Maybe we can have a good dinner and just talk about it all," Alicia said.

"Harry… Didn't you go to school with that Harry Potter fellow?" Mrs. Spinnet asked.

"One in the same, mum," she answered.

"Well, where's he been hiding himself all these years?" Sarabella asked.

Instead of responding with the sarcastic remark that was on the tip of her tongue, Alicia said, "He's been working on his biography. I'm going to sell copies in my store."

Then she showed her mother the advertisement that she was already putting around for the novel. While Mrs. Spinnet might have thought that Alicia had been engaging in hyperbole, after seeing the book flier she did make a note to keep in her purse. Alicia then scheduled a dinner that they could have as a family. She knew things would be fine as long as Harry was actually in the room.

* * *

"Are you ready?" he asked as he showed up at her flat at an ungodly early hour.

"I'm ready for you to cook me breakfast," she said darkly.

"It was your idea to go see Viktor Krum," he reminded her as he practically bounced into her flat. She stared icily at him. No one, not even her beloved fiancé, should be able to be so perky at that time of the morning.

She excused herself to take a shower and reminded him that he had better have the breakfast waiting.

"I wonder if this is what married life is going to be," he joked as he let himself into her kitchen and opened her cupboards.

"You're a man of means, but I have to work. I like working. So yeah, you can make me breakfast. Do you have a problem with that?" she asked.

"Right now? No. There might be some days I just want to take the day off," he said as he started cooking eggs and morning sausages.

"Hey, Harry," she said as she came behind him and hugged him around the waist. "Love you. Just in case you didn't know that."

"I know," he said as he cooked. "Go take your shower."

Once she was out of it and acting human again, they ate heartily and then prepared to meet the portkey to take them to Pakistan where Viktor was supposed to be.

* * *

Alicia wasn't a complainer, she told herself. She was doing this for Harry, and it was her idea. So what if she was wearing the wrong robes and shoes? It was all for the good of helping him. Eventually, though, she had to beg him to stop so she could transfigure her outfit.

After she was done, she then took a drink from her travel canteen and double checked her directions. "It's supposed to be the third house on the left."

They cautiously approached with wands drawn just in case. This was not one of the best neighborhoods to be in, and they still weren't sure if Viktor was actually going to be there. Harry lightly knocked on the door and hoped it would be Krum who would answer. It would make the task of explanations much easier.

It was not Viktor who opened the door, but instead a beautiful olive skinned woman with mesmerizing green eyes. She looked like she could have been a star in one of the Muggle Bollywood movies, and she looked entirely out of place in the doorway of such a dilapidated looking house.

"Hello," Harry said in surprise. "I'm an old friend of Viktor's. Old acquaintance, really. Is he home?"

The woman disappeared, and Krum showed himself later. He stared at the pair as if he could not place them. He never had interactions with Alicia, but she watched in hopes that he recognized Harry. They had both hoped that the Tri-Wizard tournament had been important to have left an indelible memory.

Once he spoke to them, it became clear that he was hesitant to speak, not because he didn't recognize Harry but because he had been out of practice with his English. He invited them into his home and introduced them to his wife. Alicia discovered the outside of the home was a ruse for a very beautiful inside. She broke the ice by speaking with complimentary appreciation with how the other witch kept her home. It was enough to break the ice so that the men started chatting.

While the men were chatting, Alicia put one of her memory balls on the table to contain the vapor of words that Victor was telling about Harry and the shared memories. This was full of shifting colors that started red but morphed into black and gold. It was rather pretty in Alicia's opinion.

After they had finished their visit, Harry impulsively invited the pair to their wedding. "We can arrange a portkey for you, and we will provide a place to stay if you like."

"He's right," she agreed as she held on to his arm. "It's been really great to meet some friends from the past. You don't know what this means to us. It was so hard after the war sometimes to find anyone we used to know."

After Viktor and his wife agreed to come if they let them know they date, they made promises to stay in touch. Then Harry and Alicia took the portkey back home to England.

* * *

"I've been thinking," Alicia said one afternoon as they were hovering on their brooms in the park. The casual Quidditch games they had started playing had begun to be a tradition.

"About what?" he said as he kept his eyes on the balls in motion.

"I was going to go to Hogwarts to interview Neville for the remembrance spell. Why can't I ask the ghosts and portraits? They knew you, too," she said.

The thought was odd enough for Harry to take his eyes off the balls and look at her. "Why did I never know you were this clever?"

She sighed dramatically and eye rolled at him. "I'm sure it was pure intimidation on my part. Nice to know you came to your senses eventually."

After their game, they went for another arm in arm walk through the park, enjoying candy floss as they had done so many other times.

* * *

Prior to her visit, Alicia sent an owl to Neville so they could eat lunch together in Hogsmeade before going back to the school together.

"This place makes a person feel nostalgic," she said as she sat in the Three Broomsticks. Then she leaned closer to Neville and said, "She never ages. She's got to have some secret we don't know about."

He looked at Rosmerta who had impressed most of the boys in his year when they first got to come to the village. He blushed a little as he remembered his first reactions.

"I think I'll ask her to talk on Harry's behalf, too," Alicia said, bringing Neville's thoughts away from the other witch.

"You haven't ever done this before, right?" he prodded pointedly about her magical idea. "How do you know when you're done?"

"That's it. I don't know for sure. In fact, I don't really know that this will work. I just think it should. I want to put all the memories of Harry together so that when he leaves the room he isn't instantly Obliviated from people's minds," she said again. Alicia and Neville had discussed the idea for this charm often since she had first gotten the grain of idea.

"I think," he started unsurely like the boy he once was, "that you should just go for it. Don't wait to live your life with him. Do it now and have that life together. Other people will figure it out eventually even your spell doesn't work."

Alicia shot him a nasty glance. "I think you're what some people call a 'smug married.'"

Neville laughed and grinned widely. Married life had looked good on him. When he was with his wife Hannah, he looked as if he thought he was the luckiest man alive. She could almost feel jealous about how cute they were if she hadn't had Harry.

After they finished their lunches, she went back to the school where she had met Harry and found the ghosts and portraits who could provide some insight into the life of The Boy Who Lived. It was Neville's advice in her head about not wasting time in starting a life together that urged her on to returning back to London and her shop. Though she bubbled with ideas, Alicia decided she was done searching.

* * *

One afternoon, Harry walked into Alicia's shop looking tall and thin with his wild black hair under the derby cap that had become his normal visual as an adult. As he walked up to the counter to talk to one of the employees, he hoped to get one of the people who had worked there a while. He realized that he could start to break through the power of the Obliviate spell with repeated exposure to the same people. Unfortunately for Harry, it was one of the new girls who was at the cash register, and she looked at him with the intention to flirt.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," he counseled after her first pathetic attempt. "I'm engaged to your boss."

"Really?" the girl asked amazed. "She hasn't told me about that at all."

"Why would she?" Harry asked with mild annoyance. "You just started here. Is Alicia in the office or not?"

"No… She said she was stopping in Gladrags over lunch. Hey, is she doing a wedding dress fitting?" the once flirty girl asked excitedly. She obviously had the attention span of a flea.

"I don't know," he said, "but thank you."

Harry walked out of the shop, and she stared after his bum as he left through the door. Of course, when she went to tell one of the other ladies about the handsome man she had just seen, she couldn't remember anything about him.

"Wow. That was weird," she said in confusion.

* * *

When he went to the other shop in search of his future bride, he found her sitting on a decorative public bench staring out into space. He sat down quietly beside her without saying a word. He hoped his patience would overcome her silence, and eventually he was right.

"I just want to be married to you, Harry. I don't need fancy dresses or elaborate parties. I just want you," she said before looking at the man on the bench beside her.

"I want the same thing," he said. "I don't really look good in fancy dresses. I don't have the ankles for it."

His deadpan joke was so off the cuff that Alicia burst out laughing. "I really needed that. I was just getting too wrapped up in my head and thinking about how to make the spell. I'm just tired of it. It's probably nothing compared to how you feel."

He linked his arm with hers and looked at the people walking by. "It's not so bad any more. I got lucky."

"Let's elope," Alicia finally said. "I don't want to wait any more. And Neville said something that made sense to me. When we create new memories together, our friends will have to learn us all over again as Mr. and Mrs. Potter. Let's go be those people."

"You deserve ceremony. You deserve the best of everything, Alicia," he said.

"I'm glad you think so. We'll just redo it on our first anniversary and have all our friends, new and old, give us embarrassingly large amounts of presents. And by that time, maybe we'll even find a dress that looks good with your ankles," she said with a laughing smile that touched her eyes.

* * *

Alicia and Harry married each other by the end of the week at the local wizard council. As for witnesses, they had invited Neville and Hannah and Alicia's mother, who behaved very well. When she was quizzed on it later, she said she kept reading the note she had in her purse.

"It was just the darndest thing! I kept forgetting, and I'd forget that I had forgotten! It was enough to drive a person mad," Sarabella said.

Alicia hugged her. "Yes, mum. We know how that feels. And you will have to remember that I'm Mrs. Potter now."

"Congratulations, you two!" Neville said as he brought glasses of celebratory champagne to his friends. "To all the happiness that a life together with someone you love can bring!"

"Hear! Hear!" Harry agreed.

"I hope you get this spell figured out soon. You wouldn't want your children starting Hogwarts not knowing who their father is," Hannah said earnestly.

"Oh, I never thought of that!" Alicia said with a squeak.

"Children?" Harry asked. "I wouldn't mind…"

"No, not children! I mean, sure, they'd be okay. But we _really_ have to get this spell done," she said full of stress. She took a deep, calming breath and tried to speak a mantra. "I'm a bride. Today is my day and problems can wait for me until tomorrow."

"That's the spirit," Neville said. "But I don't think your children will have the same problem Hannah is talking about. After all, Harry will be their father, the one person they know their whole lives."

"You're right. I can stop the panic," Alicia breathed. To Hannah she said darkly, "Don't scare me like that again!"

"Sorry," she said with a giggle as she took her husband's arm.

The new Mrs. Potter bit back a retort that Mrs. Longbottom _should_ have been sorry, but she let it pass. She reminded herself again that it was her wedding day, and concerns and worries could wait for tomorrow.

* * *

Harry and Alicia went on their honeymoon to Bermuda and enjoyed it greatly. They had many wizard photographs to show for it when the trip was over. Many of them involved Alicia looking beautiful on the beaches in her bathing suit or some other island style dress. Harry, on the other hand, looked a little out of place like a typical pasty white Englishman, but his new wife loved the photos of him anyway.

They decided to meet up with Alicia's mother for brunch at her home when they had returned from Bermuda to show her all the photographs and recount their tales. Out of habit, Alicia re-introduced her husband to her mother before coming into the house to enjoy everything.

It was when they were starting to drink their tea that Mrs. Spinnet realized that she was all out of milk for the tea. Immediately acting the part of the dutiful son-in-law, Harry jumped up and volunteered to go to the corner market so the mother and daughter could have time to talk.

"I'll be right back," he said as he excused himself to fetch the milk.

"That's a nice man you married," Mrs. Spinnet told her daughter.

Something in how she said it caught Alicia's attention. "Mum, do you remember him?"

"Yes, dear! Ever since you got married. I look at the note you made me put in my purse, and I have a few wizard portraits from that day. I was there, so he couldn't fade out of my mind, not when I know he's going to be such a major part of my daughter's life," she said sounding rather pleased with herself.

After Harry returned from the market, he sat down on the chair and situated his cloth napkin across his lap. He realized his new wife was staring at him, and he felt self-conscious. "What is it?"

"My mother remembers you," Alicia said softly, gesturing to her mother across the table.

"Really?" he said with no small measure as he looked from wife to mother-in-law. "But how?"

"She says it started the day we got married and has continued from there."

"Amazing!" he said with a huge grin lighting his face. "So that means new people can get to know me after all."

"Yes, they can," Alicia said with a smile.

He smiled into his plate, feeling unequivocally happy. Before the war it had happened so little, and he treasured it every time it happened.

* * *

The first year of marriage sped by for the Potters. Harry finished his book and was giving frequent talks at the shop. He had also started coaching a children's Quidditch league in greater London. He found happiness in his life, and gradually the circle of acquaintances who surrounded him had become friends enough to remember him as long as he had not been gone too terribly long.

Alicia, Hannah and Neville continued to plan the spell that they would use for Harry, and the work was completed a few days before the first anniversary bash that they were going to throw in the coffee shop of her store. Alicia, being a shrewd business woman, thought it couldn't hurt to hold it there, and it would be much easier to clean up the shop than their own flat once the party guests left.

The quartet of friends had gathered in the living room as Alicia started to tell her husband about what she had done with their help.

"I basically used the remembrall idea that started it all. Thank you, Neville," she said as an aside. "These are all various balls of memory. I have reinforced the protection so they won't break and have shrunk them down to the size of beads so you can wear them around your neck. That way, when you want to be seen, you will be. But... if there ever come days where you don't want to be known, you can take off your necklace, and no one will know the wiser."

Harry looked at all the swirling glass beads that had made the necklace that he could wear, and tears formed in his eyes. He tried to be masculine and brush it off, but he was touched. "This is amazing!"

"I think you've got an even bigger surprise coming," Hannah giggled at him.

"What's that?" he asked, his bright green eyes fixed on Neville's wife.

At the same time, the young Mrs. Potter had to stop herself from cuffing the back of the blonde woman's head. "Hush it, you!"

"What are you hiding, Alicia?" he asked suspiciously. "I already know we've got an anniversary party, so what could it be?"

"Well..." she started, wringing her hands. "I was hoping to make a dramatic announcement at the party, but I can tell you now. I went to the medi-witch yesterday. We're pregnant, Harry!"

He was so stunned he dropped his new memory necklace. Thankfully, Neville was fast thinking and grabbed it before it could fall to the floor.

"Pregnant? Are you sure?" he asked.

"Two months!" she said, nodding with excitement.

"Well... that's... bloody fantastic!" he said as he took his wife's hands and danced her around the room.

"And now, no matter how you look at it, your children don't have to worry about forgetting their father," Neville declared. "Take it from me. I know about these things."

Harry smiled broadly and kissed his wife again almost too intimately in front of their friends. "I think that day I wandered into your shop was the best day in my life."

"I think so, too," she said before she kissed him back.


End file.
